In recent years, technologies that control functions of a vehicle using a smartphone with a Bluetooth communication function have been developed.
A vehicle system identifies whether the smartphone is inside the vehicle through the Bluetooth communication with the smartphone and activates some of its functions in accordance with the result.
However, since a physical distance that enables Bluetooth devices to establish wireless communication with each other is about 30 meters, the vehicle system determines that the smartphone is within the vehicle even though the smartphone is not in the vehicle but near the vehicle.
In a conventional technology, a reception intensity of the Bluetooth signal between the vehicle system and the smartphone is used to identify whether the smartphone is inside or outside the vehicle. However, an accuracy of a method using the reception intensity of the Bluetooth signal is not reliable since changes in intensity of the Bluetooth signal are highly likely when a receiving terminal is in a noise environment or when there are objects or human body therebetween.
Thus, the vehicle system performs a second authentication process after the Bluetooth communication with the smartphone to identify whether the smartphone is inside or outside the vehicle. For example, the vehicle system performs the second authentication on the smartphone through a fingerprint recognition.
However, a separate module is required for the fingerprint recognition process.